Disaster Alert

The Role of Mobiles

in Disasters and

Emergencies

December 2005

24 December 2005

Version 1

This report was prepared by Enlightenment Economics, a consultancy

specialising in the impacts of technology and globalisation.

See http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com

Lead author: Diane Coyle.

Research: Mary Beth Childs.

We are grateful to CRED, at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels,

and to Reuters AlertNet, for permission to use their data on disasters and

fundraising. We would like to thank those people from mobile operators

and relief organisations who assisted us in our research for this report.

The GSMA would like to acknowledge and thank in particular

the following companies for their sponsorship of this report.

The Role of Mobiles in Disasters and Emergencies

December 2005

Executive Summary

A spate of natural disasters and other emergencies during the past two years has prompted new interest

in how technology can help enhance our security. This report assesses the impact that the widespread

availability of mobile phones has had on the recovery from specific disasters and atrocities, such as the

Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the summer floods in central Europe, and terrorist attacks

in Istanbul and London.

The main conclusions are:

• For members of the public, the key lesson is ‘text not talk’ during emergencies. Text messages are more

likely to get through (as they use less network capacity or can be held in a queue and sent when there

is free capacity), and their use will also help ease congestion on the network.

• Public information campaigns should emphasise the role mobile phones can play in helping recover

from a disaster. In the United States, for example, both the Federal Communications Commission and

the local operators have posted consumer advisories, telling customers to ensure their handset batteries

are charged ahead of an emergency, to have a back-up battery, to keep their phones dry, and to expect

the network to be busy...